Log #009: Echoes of the Fallen
10 Nov 2024Bobby Brightside
(The audio log begins with the faint rustling of gear and the sound of a quiet sigh. Bobby’s voice follows, gruff and thoughtful.)Bobby (grizzled, reflective):
Commander Bobby Brightside here. Had myself a day of scavenging, stacking up materials, and… well, a little reflection.
Started out gathering what I’d need to upgrade The Red Razor. Got pointed to a list of systems good for Grade 5 manufactured materials. Had to tweak a few modules in The Wanderer first, but nothing too tricky. Soon enough, I had my cargo hold filling up with what I needed.
After that, felt the need to stretch my legs a bit, so I signed up for an on-foot mission. Needed some suit schematics to upgrade my Dominator suit further down the line, and I thought it’d be a good excuse to try out my new Maverick suit.
Dropped the ship a good 500 meters out from the downed satellite. Wanted a bit of a hike. Gave the suit’s cutting tool a try to crack open the satellite… but as soon as I got it open, I heard the hum of engines. Looked up to see a Vulture descending and five mercs dropping down, guns drawn. They were out to take me down, no question about it.
Used the darkness to my advantage, moving from rock to rock, taking them out one by one. Regretted not parking closer; those 500 meters suddenly felt like miles. But I got the job done and handed in the mission to Advocate Callie McKenzie with the Chapterhouse of Inquisition.
[Beat]
Headed to the bar afterward, looking to wind down. Ran into a fellow merc, and as always, the topic of conversation turned to materials. She tipped me off on a few locations with downed ships that might be good for picking up a mix of mats—raw, manufactured, encrypted.
First stop was a downed Anaconda in the Leucos system. Waste of time, nothing there worth the fuel cost.
The second location was in HIP 12099, on planet 1b. Turns out it’s the crash site of John Jameson. The John Jameson. When I got there, I scanned the comms beacons and found a lot more than I’d expected. The place was a gold mine for data, but as I listened to the logs, it became something else—a reminder of the risks we all take out here. From those logs, it’s clear Jameson’s ship was sabotaged. He was never meant to make it back to the Bubble or see his family again. Heartbreaking, really.
Took the data to an encoded data trader at Ray Gateway over in Diaguandri, just three jumps out. Traded down, filled up, and headed back to Jameson’s crash site to do it all over again. Ran the trip a couple more times and watched my stack of data grow. Efficient, but… something about it felt heavier each time.
Commander Bobby Brightside, signing off.
(The audio fades to a quiet hum as the log ends, the finality lingering in the silence.)